Posts by jamar thrasher

A first job is a milestone that too many young people today are not reaching, and it could reduce their earnings throughout their careers, according to a new report from the Annie E. Casey Foundation. The Great Recession is a major culprit, as more youth are competing with out-of-work adults for a limited number of jobs.

A few weeks ago, the Pennsylvania General Assembly fast-tracked a bill in the waning days of the legislative session to allow certain private companies to keep most of the state income taxes of new employees. News reports to follow indicated the new tax giveaway was designed to lure California-based software firm Oracle to State College.

There has been no shortage of issues to discuss in the 2012 presidential campaign, but one issue that is conspicuously absent from the debate is poverty. Some advocates, including Rev. Sandra Strauss of the Pennsylvania Council of Churches (who serves on the Keystone Research Center's board), decided to make it a campaign issue. Check out her op-ed in today's Patriot-News.

Pennsylvania continues to run advertisements with misleading information about voter ID in the upcoming election, advocates tell Mother Jones Magazine this week. (Thanks to Pittsburgh political rapper Jasiri X for sharing the article.)

The American Association of University Women is out with a study finding that college-educated women are earning only 82% of what men are paid a year after graduation. The report controlled for various factors that affect earnings, such as occupations, majors and hours worked, to ensure the study made a true apples-to-apples comparison.

After passing out of the state Senate Tuesday, a much debated charter school bill stalled in the House of Representatives this week due to an apparent lack of support from House Republicans, as the Harrisburg Patriot-News reports. With the Legislature now recessed for the upcoming elections and leaders of both chambers vowing not to schedule any legislative votes in the lame duck session, the bill is not likely to come before lawmakers again until the new legislative session next year.

College student debt has a reached an all time, according to an Associated Press article last week on a Pew Research Center report. The new research shows a lack of jobs for recent graduates and rising tuition costs are contributing to the record high student debt.

One interesting aspect of the report: the two groups most affected by high debt are the most well-off and the least well-off:

You may have heard of the "Freshman 15," the idea that students who head off to college are bound to gain some weight in their first year. Some students, however, are not sure they can afford their next meal.

As the Pennsylvania Supreme Court heard arguments today in a case challenging the state's strict Voter ID Law, it was Justice Seamus McCaffery who observed that his identification as a justice of the Supreme Court would not be acceptable ID for him to vote under this law.